Old age is no bar - and being someone's son can also help

Britain's biggest companies may be accused of many things - but ageism in the boardroom isn't one of them. The directors of FTSE-100 companies last year ranged in age from 31 to 78. The youngest is Alejandro Santo Domingo Dávila, who joined the board of SABMiller when the brewer bought his family's beer business.

Mr Santo Domingo is the son of Colombia's richest man, Julio Mario Santo Domingo. Two years ago he sold his Bavaria brewing business, which has 98% of the Colombian market, to SAB in a deal worth £4bn and the family took two boardroom seats. Alejandro, who has been anointed as his father's successor, last year earned just over £50,000 from SAB as a non-executive director.

The youngest chief executive is another man whose father has had some influence on his success: BSkyB's James Murdoch - whose 76-year-old father Rupert is chairman of the company.

Mr Murdoch Jr controversially became chief executive of the satellite broadcaster in 2003, but has impressed doubters by turning up the pressure on Virgin Media and successfully wading into the household broadband market.

BSkyB also employed the oldest director in the 12 months surveyed for this year's Guardian/RTF boardroom pay report: 78-year-old Lord St John of Fawsley. Once regarded as one of Margaret Thatcher's favourite ministers, he served on the board for 15 years - breaking corporate gov- ernance guidelines that suggest non-executive directors step down after nine years as they can no longer be regarded as independent. He resigned in the last financial year but has retained links with the business by becoming chairman of the Sky Arts channel.

The Daily Mail also had directors at both ends of the age scale - with 39-year-old chairman Lord Rothermere sitting in the boardroom with John Hemingway, a 76-year-old non-executive who has been on the board for nearly 30 years, and the Australian shopping centre tycoon Frank Lowy, 77, who stepped down this year.

Other young directors include Oleg Novachuk, chief executive of Kazakhmys. The 37-year-old, promoted from finance director this year, was paid £1.1m last year. It is not, however, his first top job. Before he joined the mining group six years ago he was chairman of one of Kazakhstan's largest private banks.

The best paid among the young directors is pubs boss Giles Thorley (see opposite), though Simon Wolfson, the chief executive of Next who earned £1.5m last year, is likely to be the wealthiest. Mr Wolfson - son of another Thatcher favourite Lord Wolfson and co-author of the Conservative review that recently suggested abolishing inheritance tax - owns Next shares worth £33m.

Others aged 75 or over who still prefer the boardroom to the potting shed include the ITV non-executive Sir Brian Pitman, supermarket chairman Sir Ken Morrison and George Mallinckrodt of Schroders.

Directors' cut

One of the busiest people in the survey has a heavyweight executive post and two non-executive roles. Colin Day, of Reckitt Benckiser, earned £4.3m as finance director of the household products company last year. He also got £107,000 as a non-executive director at Imperial Tobacco and WPP. The most non-executive directorships are held by John Buchanan who earned £532,240 from four posts: as non-executive chairman of Smith & Nephew; deputy chairman at Vodafone; and a non-executive director at BHP Billiton and AstraZeneca.